


You Really Got Me

by nevermindgrantaire



Series: She Keeps Me Warm [16]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Nonbinary Jehan, Rule 63, art class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 02:30:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3833665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevermindgrantaire/pseuds/nevermindgrantaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While wandering into the art rooms at her university in search of Jehan, Enjolras meets a girl in a green beanie who is far more talented than she realises.<br/>Jehan conspires to get them together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Really Got Me

 

 

Enjolras looked hopelessly round the class, biting her lip and sticking her hands deep in her skirt pockets. The unknown kingdom of the art classrooms. People with neon-dyed hair carrying huge paint-splattered canvases dart past her as she tries to walk in, and as she watches, a skinny guy with red hair and huge stretchers empties half a can of paint over a sheet of metal. A girl was building a huge wicker statue of a deer in the corner.

The whole place terrifies her.

She’s not an artist. Not an art student, not by any stretch. She doesn’t know any of these people, doesn’t know her way around. But she told Jehan that she’d meet them in their textiles class because she was free and they were stressed. She’d bought coffee.

Looking around the crowded room, she couldn’t see the red haired artist anywhere, so she slid the plastic coffee cups onto the free corner of a table and hovered awkwardly.

Across the table, a girl in a green beanie hat looked up at her, and smiled lopsidedly. “You ok there, little miss uptight?”

Enjolras scowled. “I’m fine. And I’m not uptight.” She smoothed her hands over her white shirt, not noticing the charcoal stains on the table she had been leaning on.

“Chill, it’s alright. I just meant that you’re clearly not an art student.”

“I could be an art student!”

“Wearing white in an art room…” The girl nodded at her shirt and quirked an eyebrow.

Enjolras looked down. “Oh, shit!”

The girl laughs, and leans across the table, twirling her pencil between her fingers. “There’s no point trying to get it off now. Just put it in the wash when you get home, and you’ll be ok.”

Enjolras continued to scowl at it, flopping down onto one of the stools and sipping at her coffee (Americano with two extra shots). The charcoal dust puffs out as she moves.

“Who are you waiting for?” The girl opposite asked.

“Jehan Prouvaire.”

“Oh, Jehan.” She grinned. “They’re sitting over here.” She gestured to the seat beside her. “I think they just went out to speak to Feuilly about getting some more different coloured dyes or something.”

Enjolras nodded and scooted over to sit in the stool beside Jehan’s, admiring their work. It was a huge patch-work blanket made up of little squares, and each square was different. She smiled as she noticed that one has a tiny embroidered portrait of the girl next to her on it. She looked over at her- she’s absorbed in her work again, taking mono-prints of a bunch of lilies from a huge blown-up photo print out resting on the side. It’s good, Enjolras thinks, no matter how obnoxious the girl herself is. And to be fair, if Jehan likes her then she can’t be that bad. She stands up to get a better look over her shoulder. “That’s good.”

The girl looks up in surprise. “Oh, thank you! I mean. It’s not. But thanks.” She paused a moment, and then said “What’s your name? I’ve seen you around campus and stuff, but I’ve never actually spoken to you.”

“Enjolras. You?”

“No first name?”

“I don’t like my first name, it’s awful.”

“Well, then, I’m Grantaire if we’re doing it like that.”

Enjolras gave her a brief smile and turned back to the quilt, smoothing the fabric over another little embroidered portrait.

“It’s a safety blanket,” Grantaire interrupted her thoughts. “Jehan said they were going to make a blanket covered in things that they love and people that love them.”

“You’re on here.”

“I know.” Grantaire smiled at that and somehow it seemed more genuine than the smiles before. “I’ve known Jehan a very long time.”

Enjolras wanted to probe further, but the slightly closed look in Grantaire’s eyes stopped her. “Where on earth have they got to?” She eyed the coffee for a moment. “It’ll get cold if it stays waiting much longer. Do you want it?”

“What is it?”

“Iced decaf latte with a shot of vanilla syrup and two sugars.” She shrugged. “Jehan likes it sweet.”

“So do I.” Grantaire smiles. “I mean. If you’re sure?”

“Go ahead. It’ll only melt otherwise.”

Grantaire took the drink and slurped a mouthful. “Mm, that’s so nice! I’ve been working in here for hours, haven’t had time to get lunch yet.”

“Really? Jeez.” Enjolras paused. “I didn’t realise art was so hard!”

Grantaire laughed at that, and leaned an elbow on the table. “Believe me, you don’t want to know.”

“All of this stuff you’ve done is so beautiful.”

Grantaire shrugged, still looking her. Suddenly she sat up a little straighter, grabbing a pencil from behind her ear and a sketch-book from underneath the piles of prints she’d already made. “Stay right there. Don’t move! Do you mind if I sketch you?”

“Uh,” Enjolras froze. “Sure? If you like?”

Grantaire smiled a little bashfully. “Sorry. It’s just. Your hair’s amazing and your bone structure’s really good and I need more portrait practice, so…”

Enjolras smiled at her, and then stopped. “I am allowed to smile, right?”

“Sure. You can move a little, just try not to turn your head too much for a moment…”

 

The sound of her scribbling away filled the air for a moment and at the look of slightly awed concentration Enjolras felt slightly flattered. She watched the artist work for a while. Grantaire’s tongue was poking out slightly in concentration, her eyelashes fluttering over her freckly cheeks as she squinted to get the shading right. She had her sleeves rolled up past her elbows, ink and pencil stains all up her arms. Her hair was messy and curly, poking out from the beanie hat from all angles. She had too much eyeliner on, but it somehow looked right. She’s… pretty, Enjolras realised in surprise. Very pretty, when she wasn’t sneering or raising her eyebrows derisively. Her eyelashes curled and her mouth twisted sarcastically even when her expression was neutral. Drawing’s her home, Enjolras thought. Her home ground.

“Getting a good eyeful?” Grantaire asked, putting the pen back behind her ear so that she could start to smudge and smear the shadows.

_I like your freckles_ , Enjolras thought, but managed to stop herself blurting it out. She shrugged instead, and gestured to the sketch book. “Can I see?”

Grantaire bit her lip, sliding the pad across the table to her. “Go on, then…”

Enjolras flipped the book around and gasped, tracing a finger along the contour of the face sketched out roughly in dark graphite. “Wow.”

“I know, I know it’s not that great.”

“It’s brilliant!” Enjolras grins. Grantaire has caught her mid-hair flick, with her hair swirling over her shoulders. Her eyes are shadowed darkly, a steely determined look in them. Her cheekbones are sharp enough to slice paper and her lips seem flushed with colour even though the sketch is only black and white. “Seriously, this is amazing.”

Grantaire gave her a small smile. “Seriously?”

Enjolras smiled at her and gently bumped her shoulder. “Seriously.”

 

“You two seem to be getting on well!”

Enjolras whirled round to see Jehan, mismatched in their bright orange skinny jeans and baggy blue shirt, bouncing towards them. “Jehan! Finally. I’ve been waiting for ages!”

Jehan smirked. “You could have just texted me, you know. But it seems you were otherwise engaged.”

“Oh yeah,” Enjolras caught Grantaire’s eye and smirked. “ _Someone_ distracted me.”

“I didn’t know you two knew each other.”

“We didn’t.” Grantaire shrugs. “Glad I do now, though. I mean, you’d mentioned an ‘Enjolras’ but you didn’t tell me she was…” She paused. “You know. Pretty.”

Enjolras laughed and gave her a look.

“Did you bring me a coffee?” Jehan interrupted their long eye-smouldering.

Enjolras spluttered, looked away. “Oh, no, um. Sorry. You took too long and it was melting, so I gave it to Grantaire.” She looked at her watch. “But! I can run down and grab you another one?”

Jehan grinned at her. “R, you should go with her. You haven’t been out of here all day, you’ll make yourself ill working too hard.”

Grantaire half stood up, wriggling her shoulders to stretch out her muscles. “Well, if Enjolras doesn’t mind?”

“Course I don’t mind!”

Jehan put a finger on their chin thoughtfully. “Actually,” they said. “Why don’t you two go grab coffee together? You could both do with the break to be honest. And I’m perfectly fine up here.” They looked across the room to where a girl in heart-shaped sunglasses was doodling a kitten in marker-pen over a light box. “Hi, Courf!” The girl looked up, and grinned at her, waving. Jehan turned back to them, a satisfied smirk on her face. “I’ll be perfectly fine.” They waved a hand at the two of them. “Scoot!”

Enjolras let Grantaire lead her down through the pottery classroom and into the quad. “Is this a date?”

Grantaire ruffled her hair nervously and then pulled her beanie hat back on over her ears. “To be honest, I think Jehan might kill us if it isn’t.”

“As long as you’re ok with it…?” Grantaire nodded and Enjolras smiled, leaned across and hooked their pinky fingers together.

“Good.”

“Good.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope this was all ok! :) Likes etc are really super-appreciated


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